Jordanian jihadists call for holy war against regime

Islamic State of Iraq and the Levant releases video calling on Jordanians to wage war against the government in Amman.

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(photo credit:REUTERS)

The Islamic State of Iraq and the Levant (ISIL) released a video calling on the residents of the southern Jordanian city of Ma’an to wage jihad against the government.

Clashes between security forces and residents have gone on for the past couple of weeks in Ma’an after a youth was killed in a search for wanted persons.

“[Take up] arms! Blood for blood, destruction for destruction! The only solution for this criminal regime is to fight it and wage jihad against it… what the criminal regime is doing in Ma’an is neither novel nor extraordinary for this regime. It is a regime of treachery, a regime of unbelief and apostasy,” said ISIL fighter Gharib al-Urduni in the video released Saturday, according to an exclusive report by the Jihad and Terrorism Threat Monitor of MEMRI (the Middle East Media Research Institute).

“It is the regime that has ruled over the Muslims for dozens of years according to [laws] differing from those of the Koran and the Sunna of the Prophet. It rules them instead according to infidel man-made laws. It is a regime that kills Muslims and aggresses their sacred places… it is a regime that battles jihad and the mujahideen in all the jihad arenas…” said Urduni.

The video titled “A Message to Our People in Ma’an,” urges residents to take up arms against the government and for tribesmen to abandon the security forces and stop allowing their sons to serve in them.

The ISIL fighter warned the Jordanian army that it was prepared to fight them.

“I wish to send a message to the soldiers of the taghout [the tyrant – referring to the Jordanian king], members of his police, his security services and his military, I say to you – repent! … you are the ones who maintain the throne of this tyrannical, criminal regime… this regime exploits you to oppress the Muslims… you are the ones who safeguard the Jews’ borders and prevent the youth from waging jihad there [in Israel], you are the ones who prevent the youth from going to wage jihad in Syria and other jihad fronts… repent, and if you refuse, and keep standing in this tyrant’s camp, know that you can expect nothing but the sword from us, you will have nothing but killing from us… Do not think we are afraid of you. With Allah’s will, we are coming for you,” he said according to the report.

“Know that Ma’an is part of the land of al-Sham [Greater Syria] and that ISIL, and your brothers in ISIL will not slacken their support and assistance to you [while employing] all means at their disposal,” said Urduni according to the report, adding that all Jordanians should support the fight – “Do not forsake them…” Jordan has been flooded with refugees fleeing the Syrian war and some of its citizens have gone to fight alongside the Sunni dominated opposition.

ISIL is operating mainly between Iraq and Syria and is embroiled in conflict with another main Islamist group, the Nusra Front, al-Qaida’s branch in Syria.

In the video, Urduni also spoke to the tribes in the Ma’an region, calling on them to turn against the Jordanian regime, which they have generally supported.

“Oh, sons of Jordan, oh, tribesmen. Until when will you [continue] to serve as fuel, [and have] your sons burned [while serving] in the regime army of this apostate, in his police and his security services? A regime whose treachery no person of minimal intelligence doubts?” he said according to MEMRI.

“Fear Allah with regard to the Muslims, and fear Allah with regard to your sons. Do not send your sons to serve as reinforcements for this regime, so that he [the king] and his family and the heads of his regime can enjoy themselves…” David Schenker, a senior fellow at the Washington Institute for Near East Policy, says that there is a growing threat from Jordanian Salafi jihadists returning to the kingdom from Syria to carry out terrorist attacks.

Writing in a report on Monday, titled “Salafi Jihadists on the Rise in Jordan,” he said that reports indicate that around 250 Jordanians have been killed in the Syria fighting and that “mosques throughout the kingdom are allegedly recruiting for the jihad to the north, and there appears to be no shortage of volunteers.”